The top 10 applicant tracking systems in the market today

With over 60 applicant tracking systems in contention for your business, it’s easy to become overwhelmed when sourcing the most suitable one for you – especially if you’re new to them.

But, even if you’re fully versed in the benefits this type of HR recruiting software can bring, how do you know which one is best for you? Well, as you’d expect, like snowflakes, no two applicant tracking systems are the same.

So whether you’re in the market for your very first hire or you’re a hundred-plus-employee organisation looking to scale your business, there’s something for everyone – as we’ll discover in this post.

What else will we cover?

• A brief explanation of applicant tracking systems
• The benefits of using an applicant tracking system
• How applicant tracking systems work
• When using an ATS will benefit a business
• Our top 10 best ATSs

What is an applicant tracking system?

Before we go any further, for the benefit of those who are in the market for the first time, an applicant tracking system is essentially hiring software that automates administrative recruitment tasks.

It helps a company store and organise candidate and job-related data. And it makes the tracking and monitoring of different parts of the hiring process easier.

There are many reasons why recruiters and employers choose applicant tracking systems. In short, they’ll help you:

• Schedule interviews faster
• Advertise easier
• Reduce time spent on manual tasks

To learn more check this article how does an applicant tracking system work. But overall, a good ATS helps relieve many recruiting pains that recruiters and hiring managers often face.

So, let’s explore that in a bit more detail…

What are the benefits of using an ATS?

Undoubtedly the biggest pain point for recruiters is the heavy lifting involved with keeping information in candidate databases up to date. This is precisely what the ATS is there to solve.

With the data entry taken care of, you’ll have more time to connect with candidates and make hiring decisions – what matters to you most.

Further to this, applicant tracking systems help you to:

• Increase your productivity and efficiency when hiring – especially at scale
• Enhance the candidate experience through faster scheduling and communication – particularly in remote and hybrid work environments
• Access multiple job boards and manage all applications in a centralised location
• Improve employer brand to attract the best candidates
• Utilise valuable metrics and reports to improve the hiring process
• Comply with laws recruitment laws more easily

How do these systems work?

What you’ll get with an ATS is a standardisation of the recruitment process.

So whether you’re on a low budget and looking to operate with a more targeted HR team, you’re looking to hire at scale, or you’re just looking to recruit someone quickly, an ATS will provide you with all the tools to make it as targeted and time efficient as possible.

Basically, every ATS will enable you to:

• Post to multiple job boards at once, exponentially increasing your reach across popular and niche job sites
• Schedule screening calls, one and two-way video interviews, in-person interviews, assessments, and other key components of candidate evaluation
• Move candidates from application to offer in the hiring pipeline
• Communicate between candidates and hiring teams
• Collaborate with teammates to facilitate unity when it comes to making hiring decisions
• Comply with laws around candidate sourcing
• Evaluate candidates with the use of assessments and scorecards
• Convey the company culture and vision through employer branding
• Measure the effectiveness of your hiring through reports

This scalability means applicant tracking systems can add incredible value, regardless of the size of the organisation or the person using them.

From small startups to large corporations, whether it’s a business owner, recruiter or hiring manager, an ATS can streamline and standardise the hiring process. Saving time, money and labour.

How do I know I need an ATS?

Companies of all sizes can use applicant tracking systems. However, they’re particularly useful for businesses that are regularly hiring employees for various positions or those that tend to get large numbers of applicants for each position.

Businesses are likely to see a significant ROI with an applicant tracking system if they’re screening more than 1000 resumes annually. They’ll also benefit from an ATS if they have a long or convoluted hiring process or experience problems with their recruiting and administration.

Top 10 list of applicant tracking systems

Best ATS for startups

GoHire

GoHire is an all-in-one talent hiring platform for small businesses that’s surprisingly feature rich given the price point. It gives you complete control of your hiring pipeline, meaning you can manage jobs, candidates, and interviews in less time and with less effort. And that’s perfect given most of their customers are moving away from manual or no process at all.

GoHire easily integrates with your website, social channels, job boards and sets up a brand-new careers page for your business. GoHire’s real advantage is the speed of setup; your hiring will be running in a matter of days.

Find out more about GoHire here.

Best for small to medium-sized enterprises

Greenhouse

Greenhouse is one of the world’s leading hiring software companies. Beyond your basic ATS needs, it provides additional tools for the recruitment process such as the automation of resume scanning.

It provides consistency in setting the application process, making comparisons between candidates clear and concise. However, Greenhouse is still relatively new. So the scalability and integration of the software doesn’t compare to some of the alternatives at this point.

Find out more about Greenhouse here.

Bullhorn

A great ATS that offers contact management, candidate tracking and position filling. Bullhorn provides you with a variety of customisation options to suit your needs. These range from screen layout to user interface settings.

In contrast to Greenhouse, Bullhorn’s ace card is the scalability and integration potential it provides. It may take a bit of time to set up it’s certainly worth the investment when you start getting results.

Find out more about Bullhorn here.

JazzHR

JazzHR is used by over 2,000 companies across a range of industries. Its hiring software enables you to post jobs, implement an approval process and streamline your recruitment from end to end.

A key benefit to Jazz is its tiered access whereby you can limit what different team members can see. This means you can include collaborators without providing them with the full access. Like many new ATSs, though, Jazz offers limited integration options.

Find out more about JazzHR here.

Best for medium-sized enterprises

Workable

A standalone ATS, Workable replaces emails and spreadsheets with an integrated process of finding candidates, setting up interviews and hiring people. It helps boost your employer brand, attract the right candidates and manage high volumes of candidates.

Workable is web-based, so you won’t need to spend any time getting started. And the platform is simple to use. However, it’s not as in-depth in terms of data analytics when compared with other options such as Lever.

Find out more about Workable here.

Kronos

Kronos’ hiring software is used by over half of all Fortune 1,000 companies. Its popularity hinges on the integration it provides between recruitment and workforce management platforms. This facilitates a more comprehensive HR experience when compared with your basic ATS.

Kronos gives you the option of either an on-site installation or a hosted, web-based service, which offers a great level of flexibility in terms of your companies’ IT capabilities.

Find out more about Kronos here.

Best for medium to large-sized enterprises

Jobvite Hire

Jobvite’s platform enhances the recruitment process with AI-powered processes, including the ability to automatically screen and rank candidates based on preset parameters.

Jobvite Video is an incredibly useful and unique feature that allows on-demand video screening within the platform. The downside to Jobvite, though, is the limited integration options when compared with other tools.

Find out more about Jobvite here.

Best applicant tracking systems for large companies

SmartRecruiters

SmartRecruiters hastargeted enterprise-sized organisations looking for a high volume solution for their recruitment challenges. The company itself is one of the largest applicant tracking system providers on the market.

SmartRecruiters’ strength is its mobile optimisation which allows you to post jobs and check out career profiles on a mobile device. The sticking point for this ATS is that it doesn’t suit third-party recruiters so well, as CVs can’t be forwarded on.

Find out more about SmartRecruiters here.

Best all-rounders

Lever

Lever offers many fantastic features such as customised job postings, one-click referral links and a customised candidate pipeline. It provides reports on where candidates drop out and enables in-depth analysis.

The biggest asset of Lever is the referral system that allows users to share jobs on platforms like LinkedIn. 

Find out more about Lever here.

Teamtailor

Teamtailor is all about employer branding and recruitment marketing. This Swedish recruitment solution provides fantastic features such as its native careers page, text recruitment, referrals and candidate nurturing.

Teamtailor is also incredibly easy to use since they’ve simplified the process of posting and promoting jobs. However, their analytics don’t allow you to see your cost per hire, which is obviously a very important metric.

Find out more about Teamtailor here.

The Takeaway

Choosing an ATS isn’t a decision that should be taken lightly. You’ve got to weigh up the pros and cons and ensure the benefit-to-risk ratio is stacked in your favour. 

But we will say this… PitchMe will increase the benefits of any ATS exponentially. Think of it as a plug-in amp that allows you to turn up the hiring benefits to 11. It’s compatible with Bullhorn and we can show you how it works over a video call so you have all the relevant information for when you’re ready to get hiring.